Presence
by completely mad
Summary: This is sad, but really really good. It's not that long, so please readreview and give it a chance. Semi-songfic, but mainly story.


[A/N] So this is a stab at an angsty/drama thing. It's a sort of songfic inspired by Evanescence's "My Immortal". Read to find out the pairings. Extremely mild graphic death of Voldemort about mid-way through. It's not that long so please read and give me feedback. Even a one word review will encourage me. Let me know if you'd like to see more stories, such as the events leading up to this, or what happened after this. End of story leaves a whole lot of possibilities open. Enjoy and please please review.  
  
:: indicates song lyrics.  
  
PRESENCE By: completely mad  
  
::I'm so tired of being here...suppressed by all my childish fears...  
  
"Ginny? Are you almost ready?"  
Ginny sat slowly on the edge of her newly stripped bed. Boxes surrounded her, labeled with everything from "Ginny's clothes" to "Family Photo Albums". She couldn't believe she was really leaving.  
But she had to.  
She'd put this day off for months.  
But it had come.  
She stared disconsolately at the bare walls, feeling as though a leaden ball were sinking through her chest.  
"Ginny? Are you coming?" Ron's head appeared in the doorway.  
  
::And if you have to leave...I wish that you would just leave...  
  
Ginny nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek. Suddenly, she gasped for air as sobs overtook her.  
Ron stood frozen for a moment, before quickly crossing the room and sitting beside her on the bed.  
"It's alright," he said softly, putting his arm around her protectively and drawing her into a hug. "I miss him too, Ginny..."  
  
::Because your presence lingers here...  
  
"I...don...wan....to...leave," Ginny choked, clinging desperately to Ron.  
"I know," he murmured, gently patting the back of he head. "But you have to, Ginny. He wouldn't have wanted you to waste here like you've been doing. He'd want you to follow through on those dreams you always had..."  
Ginny shook her head violently, pulling back from Ron. Wanting anything seemed like something that belonged to a past no longer available to her. A past when she was with Harry...  
  
::And it won't leave me alone...  
  
"Come on, Ginny," Ron said gently, taking her by the hand and pulling her up from the bed. "Hermione's waiting down in the kitchen."  
Ginny cast her eyes around the room, before they were suddenly caught by a shiny something sticking out of a nearby box.  
"You go on, Ron," she said, doing her best to feign a smile and wipe a few stray tears of her cheeks. "I'll be down in a minute. There's just one more thing I have to do."  
  
"All right, Ginny," Ron said, placing a hand on her cheek and wiping away a few fresh tears with his thumb. "We'll be waiting whenever you're ready."  
She clasped his hand briefly. "Thank you, Ron."  
He smiled and left the room, closing the door behind him. She waited until she could hear his footsteps on the stairs before crossing to the box that had caught her eye.  
  
::These wounds won't seem to heal...this pain is just too real...  
  
She lifted the box gingerly onto the bed. The side told her in bold letters that she was looking at "Weasley family photo Albums". Beneath the large writing was a small message, written in green ink: "featuring Harry Potter". She smiled in spite of herself, remembering their last moving day and how Harry had insisted on adding that.  
The glimmering thing that had caught her eye turned out to be a protruding corner of a silver frame. Ginny bent back the cardboard flaps protecting the albums, and was greeted by a framed picture of Harry and herself, standing in front of their new house, beaming happily.  
Ginny sank slowly to the dusty floor, unwilling to tear her eyes from the picture of them together. Happy.  
How long had it been since she'd been happy?  
  
::There's just too much that time can not erase...  
  
She could almost feel the sunlight reflecting off her shoulders as it had that day in the picture. She could smell the pine trees behind their house. She could even hear Ron's incessant whining of how they insisted on having pictures of everything. Smiling softly, Ginny remembered the loud smack as Hermione had thrown the Realtor's folder, which she'd been perusing, straight at the back of Ron's head.  
  
::When you'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears...  
  
'We've been through a lot together,' Ginny thought sadly. 'All those adventures...  
And we always made it through.  
...Except for that last one...'  
  
::When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears...  
  
She had seen it happen...  
  
"Well, Potter, we seem to have reached a dead end, haven't we?"  
Harry leaned against the cold stone wall, panting for breath, his wand hung uselessly at his side.  
The others were back in the other chamber...Presumable, they were finishing off the few Death Eaters that were still standing...  
But he...He had gone after Voldemort at full speed...  
He had chased him through rooms...  
Down corridors...  
Dodging curses all the way...  
And now...  
Here they stood.  
Too equally matched to duel.  
"I suppose one of us might have seen this coming," Voldemort said, sounding almost bored. "Our wands our brothers. They cannot be forced into dueling. Well, on second thought, they can, but," he sneered at Harry, "it will not accomplish the desired effect."  
Harry was still sucking air into his lungs as quickly and deeply as he could. The combination of terror, fury, and complete exhaustion from chasing him for so long was becoming almost overwhelming.  
"So, what are we to do now, Harry Potter?" Voldemort said coldly, approaching him slowly. "I cannot feel physical pain anymore. You can." He stopped and a cruel smile lifted his lips. "I think that is a rather good indication of who should be allowed to torture whom."  
But something suddenly clunked into place in Harry's racing mind.  
Dumbledore's face swam before him...  
"We have found the weakness we have been searching for. Voldemort used your blood to return fully. You are mortal, Harry. Therefore, Voldemort is no longer completely immortal."  
But, now as Harry stood before the towering Dark Lord, the last words of Dumbledore's speech were screaming in his head, "HE IS NO LONGER COMPLETELY IMMORTAL".  
But that meant he was still immortal in some way...  
"However, before I torture you into madness," Voldemort said quietly, apparently overlooking Harry's frantic thought process (Harry had kept his eyes shut tightly, to avoid any chance for mind reading), "I would like to thank you."  
This startled Harry so much, that in spite of himself, he cracked his eyes open a bit and stared into Voldemort's cold, hard face.  
"Do not look so surprised," Voldemort said, sounding coldly gleeful, "Surely you don't mean to tell me that Dumbledore never realized what my main reason for using your blood to return was?" Harry kept his face impassive, and Voldemort's sneer became more pronounced. "Your mother left a strong protective shield on you, Harry Potter. I wanted that shield. I wanted your life force. You've proven yourself nearly immortal by surviving my every attempt to kill you. I wanted that as well. And so, I used your blood and bound our life forces together. Therefore," he continued cruelly, "I will not kill you as I did your parents. I will simply torture you into insanity and force immortality potion down your throat. I will make sure that you spend the rest of your days living in a private ward in St. Mungo's, talking to the shower curtains and drawing on the walls with your own blood. Does that sound fun, Harry Potter?"  
  
But Harry had not heard the end of Voldemort's speech. He had latched onto the single phrase that he thought might hold hope for the wizarding world..."I USED YOUR BLOOD AND BOUND OUR LIFE FORCES TOGETHER..."  
But that meant...  
"But what if I die?" Harry said quietly.  
"Idiot boy," Voldemort hissed. "I said I would force you to drink a immortality potion, and..."  
  
"But what if I die before you can give it to me?" Harry said in the same soft voice, edging along the wall.  
"I have said already that I have no intention of killing you," Voldemort sneered. "However, if you keep up with this mindless raving, I may change my mind."  
  
"No you won't," Harry said, still sliding along the wall back towards the chamber through which they had entered. "Because if I die...you die..."  
  
"What do you mean to do, boy?" Voldemort said, no trace of a fake smile of his face. "Take your own life?"  
Voldemort laughed a high, chilling laugh. Harry's shaking fingers clenched resolutely around his wand.  
'Atleast I can see my parents again...and Sirius', he thought to himself.  
Suddenly, the image of his parent's faces burst clearly into his mind. He was thinking clearer than he ever had.  
He set his jaw and lifted his wand, pointing it squarely at Voldemort.  
"Oh, you mean to kill me?" Voldemort said, a small note of relief in his voice as he began laughing again. "You've haunted every step I ever took," Harry said in a quiet, dangerous voice, the hand holding his wand remarkably steady. "You've murdered my family. And my friends. For too long you've been able to do whatever you want. You haven't had to deal with any consequences. You've never had to watch someone you love die." His wand hand was beginning to tremble. "You haven't known what it's like to feel pain. You've never had your heart broken." He was shaking violently. "And you've never had to die."  
  
"I never shall," Voldemort hissed.  
But Harry suddenly whipped his wand around to point it squarely at his chest.  
"Think again!" he yelled.  
Suddenly, Ginny appeared at the end of the corridor, clutching her newly broken left arm, blooding trickling from the large wound on her face.  
"HARRY!" she screeched, seeing what he was doing.  
Both Harry and Voldemort turned to look at her.  
"Get out of here, Ginny!" Harry screamed, before turning back to Voldemort.  
"Goodbye, Voldemort," he said quietly.  
"HARRY! NO!" Ginny screamed, but her words were lost, for Harry had screamed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" and a blinding green light had erupted from the end of his own wand. Voldemort was screaming in rage, but before he could do anything, he was shrieking in agony. Ginny rushed to Harry's side as he fell in a crumpled heap to the floor. Voldemort's skin was bubbling like hot wax, and melting off his skeletal frame to pool around his feet.  
Ginny looked over her shoulder just in time to see Voldemort, now a standing skeleton, burst into flame. He burned for a second before his bones were reduced to fine ash, which fell amid the already formed puddle of his skin. Both the ash and the liquid dissolved into a green vapor and were gone. Now she turned her attention back to Harry. He was motionless, his vibrant green eyes were half open, but all of the light that they had once held was gone. His cheeks were still flushed, and his forehead was still laced with perspiration.  
Ginny sunk shaking to a kneel beside him. She lifted his head gently and placed it in her lap, sobbing quietly. Looking down, she saw that at long last, his lightning bolt scar had gone. It had evaporated with Lord Voldemort.  
She sobbed harder, and reached down to where his wedding ring rested on his still warm hand.  
"Always and forever," she murmured, touching the ring, "I will love you Harry James Potter."  
"Ginny? Ginny are you down there? Ginny, we got them all! It's over! Where's Harry?"  
Ron suddenly appeared at the top of the corridor. Ginny, did not turn around. She just reached down to caress Harry's cheek and plant one final kiss on his flushed lips.  
"He's here," she whispered. "But he's gone."  
  
::I've held your hand through all of these years...But you still have...  
  
Reality came crashing back on Ginny when she heard a soft footstep on the bottom stair. They were coming up to get her.  
  
::all of me...  
  
She looked back at the picture, unwilling to accept the fact that Harry was gone, and she...she was leaving the house they had once shared together.  
  
::You used to captivate me...by your resonation mind...  
  
Hermione stood in the doorway to Ginny's room, leaning gently on her oak cane.  
"Ginny," she said softly, "Ron asked me to come check on you."  
  
"I told him I'd be down in a minute," Ginny replied a bit more hostile than she had intended.  
"I know," Hermione said, now entering the room slowly through her limp, "and that was twenty minutes ago." She sat on the edge of the stripped bed, which responded with a soft groan. "We're just worried about you, that's all."  
Ginny suddenly felt bitter tears rising in the back of her throat. It was all well and fine that Ron and Hermione be worried about other people. Afterall, they still had eachother. Neither of them had died during the last attack. They would probably live in marital bliss until the end of their days, just as she and Harry had planned to do.  
But she had no emotion to spare for pitying others. She couldn't even appreciate the effort that Hermione had taken to climb all those stairs with her cane.  
To Ginny, Hermione's permanent injury was little more than an equalizer to her. Ginny had lost her husband and Hermione had lost most of the use of her legs. Ginny felt ashamed and disgusted for thinking such thoughts. Hermione didn't deserve her pain just as much as Ginny didn't deserve hers.  
But Ginny felt as though she would like a cane sometimes too...  
If only to help her remain upright against the terrible pressure that had smothered her heart ever since that horrible day.  
"Ginny," Hermione said gently, laying her cane down on the floor, "I think there's something more besides what you're telling us. What's really wrong?"  
  
Ginny glanced over her shoulder. Hermione was watching her with careful eyes, her prematurely lined forehead knitted in concern. The way the sunlight was catching her, Ginny could see the faint traces of gray in Hermione's once brown hair. She was reminded forcibly of Lupin and her heart immediately began to ache again.  
"It's...I...nothing," Ginny murmured, turning back around. Unconsciously, she ran her palm over her stomach. How long would it be until she told them?  
  
How long would it be until she could no longer hide it?  
  
::Now I'm bound by the life you left behind...  
  
In all of the drama of moving day, Ginny hadn't yet told Ron, Hermione, or anyone else for that matter, about the call she had received that morning. The call that had both elated and depressed her beyond words.  
She was three months pregnant with Harry's child. A little girl.  
  
::Your face it haunts...my once pleasant dreams...Your voice it chased away...all of the sanity in me  
  
Ginny had been day dreaming about the baby all day. She thought she had decided on a name, but she wasn't sure.  
What was her mother going to say?  
Her father would have been overjoyed, but he was no longer alive either.  
So many parts of Ginny's life had been ripped away...  
But now, stirring within her, was a new love...a new being in her life...  
  
::I've tired so hard to tell myself that you're gone...and though you're still with me...  
  
"Hey, Hermione?" Ginny said suddenly, unable to restrain herself.  
"Yes, Ginny?" Hermione asked, now setting some boxes that were lying on the bed onto the floor.  
  
:: I've been alone...all alone...  
  
"What do you think of the name Ambrosine? For a girl, I mean," Ginny said, twisting around to observe Hermione's reaction.  
"Hmmm..." Hermione said thoughtfully. "Well, it's a pretty name, to be sure. What does it mean?"  
Ginny smiled softly to herself, looking down at her hands splayed on the floor.  
"Immortal."  
  
::These wounds won't seem to heal...  
This pain is just too real... There's just too much that time can not erase...  
When you'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears... When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears...  
And I held your hand through all of these years... But you still have...  
All of me...oh... me....oh... me... 


End file.
